Fungi: mycelia, mushrooms & more

The Healing Advocacy Fund reported that over 3,500 clients received psilocybin-assisted therapy at Oregon’s first psilocybin service center in 2023. The cost of these treatments is typically much lower than what is projected for FDA-approved MDMA therapies.

(...)"Fungal computing offers several advantages over brain-organoid-based computing," Adamatzky says, "particularly in terms of ethical simplicity, ease of cultivation, environmental resilience, cost-effectiveness and integration with existing technologies."(...)

An Australian start-up is hoping fungi can pull carbon dioxide from the air and stash it underground. It’s one of several ventures trying to deploy the superpowers of soil to slow global warming.

"Many iconic Australian animals, such as bilbies, potoroos, bettongs and bandicoots, feed directly on soil fungi -- including native truffles. The same pathways are likely to be responsible for their distribution in the environment."

To ensure the long-term survival of species that depend on soil fungi, especially the glossy black-cockatoo, Dr Crowley says conservation efforts need to consider the value of habitats on poor soils.

The study: Geology controls the distribution of a seed-eating bird: Feeding-tree selection by the glossy black-cockatoo Calyptorhynchus lathami

Invidious link

Researchers at Berkeley Lab have developed an innovative experimental system to unravel the intricacies of cellulose breakdown by enzymes. Cellulose, composed of glucose molecules held together by covalent bonds, forms complex fibrils stabilized by hydrogen bonds. These bonds hinder enzyme access to covalent bonds, slowing cellulose-chopping.

To gain insight into this mechanism, Berkeley Lab scientists designed a device containing cellulose from green algae and enzymes derived from fungi. This setup facilitates real-time observation of structural changes in cellulose during enzymatic reactions.

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VTT's research shows for the first time the complex structural, chemical, and mechanical features adapted throughout the course of evolution by Hoof mushroom (Fomes fomentarius). These features interplay synergistically to create a completely new class of high-performance materials.

Research findings can be used as a source of inspiration to grow from the bottom up the next generation of mechanically robust and lightweight sustainable materials for a variety of applications under laboratory conditions. These include impact-resistant implants, sports equipment, body armor, exoskeletons for aircraft, electronics, or surface coatings for windshields.

Science Advances (2023). DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.ade5417

Explore the chromatic universe of fungi through the spectrum of colors naturally produced by dye mushrooms.

(...) this is NOT a field guide, it is purely a study of color extracted from foraged dye mushrooms. Once dye mushrooms are obtained, there are many factors that affect color rendering.

On top of the cluttered desks, there are large plastic containers with electrodes sticking out of a foam-like substance, and a massive motherboard with tiny oyster mushrooms growing on top of it.

Integrating these complex dynamics and system architectures into computing infrastructure could in theory allow information to be processed and analyzed in new ways. And it’s definitely an idea that has gained ground recently, as seen through experimental biology-based algorithms and prototypes of microbe sensors and kombucha circuit boards.

In other words, they’re trying to see if mushrooms can carry out computing and sensing functions.

Mycelium with different geometries can compute different logical functions, and they can map these circuits based on the electrical responses they receive from it.

“Right now it’s just feasibility studies. We’re just demonstrating that it’s possible to implement computation, and it’s possible to implement basic logical circuits and basic electronic circuits with mycelium,”

Mycelium is the body of the fungus, often found underground as a network of root-like filaments or hyphae, whereas the better-known mushrooms are the fruiting bodies, analogous to the apples of a tree. Because of its strength, flexibility and biodegradability, mycelium is an unusually versatile material that has already been harnessed as alternative leather for bags and clothes, degradable eco-packaging and even interior architecture. Its tactile qualities and density also make it an attractive meat substitute.

(...) mycoremediation companies are determined to show that employing fungi is an economical and eco-friendly strategy to deal with the global problem of pollution.

Note: This article talks mainly about companies, but since it is about mycoremediation companies, I thought that it's worth knowing about these projects.

Thanks for making the community! Excited to check out the content

• 00:01 Intro
• 08:55 Part l - More Than Mushrooms
• 23:53 Part II - Ultimate Partnership
• 38:53 Part III - Fungal Earth
• 50:24 Part IV - The First Fungi

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A long time ago, not so far away, freshwater plants partnered with fungi and moved onto land from lake and river shores.

Liverworts are the closest living analogs to the first plants that arrived on land, almost half a billion years ago.

Like other leafy liverworts, Hooker’s flapwort grows as a network of underground axes, or stem-like structures, that put out small, photosynthesizing shoots above the soil. Looking at these subterranean stems using an electron microscope, Duckett noticed a symbiotic fungus that he described as an “odd fungus that looked like nothing anyone had seen before.”

Duckett was curious about the fungus, so he teamed up with Martin Bidartondo, a molecular ecologist working at Kew Gardens. Initially Bidartondo was at a loss, reporting back that he couldn’t identify the fungus’s DNA. Eventually, using new techniques, he found that the mystery symbiont belonged to the Mucoromycotina, or “mucs,” an ancient lineage of fungi previously known only as free-living decomposers.

These discoveries have prompted many new questions about plant evolution that researchers have yet to answer. How do plants, gloms, and mucs work together to balance each partners’ nutritional needs? (...)